#Fuoridallatrappola

25 November

Violence against women, for 7 out of 10 Italians it is a serious and urgent problem

The 'Before it's too late' survey shows how awareness grows with age and GenZ seems the least concerned

by Silvia Pasqualotto

21 November 2024

4' min read

Key points

A widespread problem but for men it can wait
Insufficient awareness campaigns
It's talked about in the family but needs to be done in school

4' min read

Addressing children, boys and girls by educating them about affectivity and respect through awareness-raising campaigns in schools and through dedicated teaching hours. This is the key to combating gender-based violence according to 8 out of 10 Italians surveyed by the National Institute for Communication (Inc) on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The report, compiled by Inc Non-profit lab - their observatory dedicated to the Third Sector -, focuses in particular on what Italians think about gender violence and what they ask for to fight this terrible phenomenon. The key, it emerges from the answers, is to focus on the new generations, which also give the survey its title: 'Before it's too late: educating young people in affectivity to combat gender violence'. Carried out under the patronage of Rai per la Sostenibilità Esg and in collaboration with AstraRicerche, the research highlights how there are strong differences between men and women in the perception of gender violence as well as in the awareness that the current way of communicating this issue by the media is not adequate.

A widespread problem but for men it can wait

The vast majority (80.8%) of respondents - precisely 4 out of 5 people - agree that gender-based violence against women is a very widespread reality. However, the perception is higher among women (87%) of all generations, compared to 75% of men. Not only that. For 7 out of 10 Italians, gender-based violence is a 'very serious and urgent' problem that 'cannot wait'. Again, women are more convinced of this (8 out of 10, against 6 out of 10 men).

In general, awareness of urgency increases with age, but it is striking that those least interested in urgent action (just 4 out of 10) are the young people of the so-called Generation Z (those born between 1996 and 2012). An element in line with what emerged from other recent surveys, which revealed how gender-based violence among young people is not only widespread but also underestimated because girls and boys lack the cultural and emotional tools to recognise abuse in relationships.

Returning to the report, there are also many Italians for whom violence against women is indeed a problem 'but less than other emergencies' (24.1 per cent), or 'something to be dealt with later, when other more serious problems have been solved' (6.4 per cent).

Insufficient awareness campaigns

Talk about it more and better since it is a much bigger and more widespread problem than the picture taken by the news channels. This is what the media should do according to 60.6% of the respondents, i.e. the majority of the sample.

A conviction that is, again, stronger among women (68%) than among men (54%). The gender difference peaks, however, among Gen Z young people where the majority of girls share this view (79%), while the boys who think the media should do more and better are less than half (46%).

However, it is not only the media that are called into question, but also the awareness-raising campaigns that many people consider ineffective. In fact, if 83.3% of the sample said they had seen such campaigns, only half believed they were 'able to make people think'. About 40% of those interviewed instead judged them to be 'too rhetorical, not very concrete', 'repetitive, always based on the same words and the same concepts', and 'not very useful in generating an effective change in those who practice or could practice psychological or physical violence'. Italians therefore fail the communication on gender-based violence, giving it a mark of 5 and a half out of 10.

It is talked about in the family but needs to be done at school

The research shows that Italians talk a lot about gender-based violence and do so mainly with their partners (67%) and with their children. In fact, 77.9% of them discuss it with their boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18, while 65.1% already start tackling the subject when they are between 10 and 13. 36.7% decide to do so even earlier: between the ages of 5 and 9.

While this dialogue is certainly a positive sign, it does not seem to yield great results given the low sensitivity of the younger generations revealed by the previous answers. It is also for this reason that more than 9 out of 10 Italians (91.6%) stated that they would like awareness-raising campaigns to be directed not only at adults, as is the case now, but also and above all at children. For this reason, they should be conducted first and foremost within schools and addressed, according to the interviewees, to children between the ages of 5 and 9 (39.6%) and between 10 and 14 (46.9%). Beyond this age they would seem to lose effectiveness and should be dealt with by institutions (56.4%), non-profit organisations (46.9%) and teachers (42.9%).

The research also tried to find out which topics Italians think should be covered in these campaigns, and the majority of the sample (72.6%) is convinced that the priority is to inform on how to recognise the signs of gender-based violence (72.6%). This is followed by combating gender stereotypes (48.1%), how to deal with and control anger (45.6%) and how to better manage romantic and love relationships (40.1%).

Making a difference affective education as a school subject

In addition to awareness-raising campaigns, 8 out of 10 Italians (79.7%) are convinced that what would really make a difference in combating gender-based violence is to make affectivity education a subject of study in the school curriculum for children and adolescents.

Italy, the report says, 'is one of the very few countries that still lacks a systematic project to include these topics in the school curriculum'. Yet educating in affectivity seems to be precisely the key to combating gender violence because children unable to manage and know their emotions potentially become adolescents and adults who solve problems with anger and conflict.

Responsible for this education should, according to the respondents, be the family (65.5%), schools (61%), institutions (43.2%) and also specialist professionals such as psychologists and sexologists (43.2%). A fundamental role is also recognised by the report's findings for non-profit organisations. In fact, 61.9% of the sample believes that they should be the ones to enter the field, since 'the other figures (family, schools, institutions) do not always fully perform this task'.